charlie williams
strategy professor, husband, father of three, lover of woods and water...
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2011-11-28
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2011-11-03
Concerning Replication
Mark Kleiman thinks replication of social programs in different countries is not possible. This reminds me of the old debate about the Toyota Production System and whether it could be imported to the US. Well, Toyota (and, with a different system, Honda) have done it, but American firms haven’t managed to copy it. Here’s the comment on replication that I left at Kleiman’s blog:
Interestingly, replication is considered a regular phenomenon among businesses. Starting with Intel’s Copy Exactly philosophy for its semiconductor fabs and ranging through many successful franchising systems, replication appears to be a feasible and successful strategy for company expansion. I’ve argued that the philosophy of replication masks some underlying adaptation, but even in surveys I’ve done of service firms aiming for replication appears to have value for companies trying to recreate successes in other locations.
A citation: Replication as Strategy by Gabe Szulanski and Sid Winter,http://www.jstor.org/stable/3086044
On the teaching front, I’ve “replicated” an approach mentioned by Michael on the blog here, having my students submit sentence outline, and I’ve even distributed (with permission) Michael’s own sentence outline describing the approach and the reasons for it.
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2011-10-27
the understatement: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support
The announcement that Nexus One users won’t be getting upgraded to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich led some to justifiably question Google’s support of their devices. I look at it a little differently: Nexus One owners are lucky. I’ve been researching the history of OS updates on Android phones…
Source: understatementblog
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2011-10-25
Take a moment of your time to reblog this, to show respect for the man who was beaten and burnt to death for being gay.
ShortFormBlog: For those needing context, The Telegraph has more about this awful story.
Rest In Peace Stuart Walker. A 28 year old, gay man who was beaten and tied to a lamp-post at the earlier hours of Saturday morning. He was then set on fire, and burnt to death. Homosexuality is found in over 400 species, homophobia is found in one. So, which is natural now?
This made me tear up. I don’t want to understand people anymore.
(via brooklynmutt)
Source: dedicati0nlastsalifetime
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2011-10-08
Source: azspot
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2011-09-19
Source: nevver
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2011-09-12
Tough Monday…
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2011-08-30
Apple’s vision for the future of computing versus Microsoft’s vision for the future of computing.
Any questions?
Source: parislemon
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2011-03-14
I’ve fallen asleep while reading to my kids. I shudder to think the garbage that I added to bedtime stories.
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2011-03-05
Fetish cyclocross cycle. 48cm.
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Trek bike & seat
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2011-03-03
I just learned what Erinaceous means…
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2011-02-16
open budget - ranking transparency of public budgets
Cool project.
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more smoke than fire on Ferrari
Well, I thought this image meant Ferrari’s were catching fire. But the story is insider baseball about how the Italian car firm manipulates journalists and car tests. The ‘stock’ cars it sends for tests are highly tuned for a specific track, and sometimes it provides different cars for straight line and for ‘handling’ tests. Yawn - I suppose someone cares about this.
Still, it brings to mind Gladwell’s essay on college rankings in the New Yorker. His takedown of quantitative car ratings by auto journalists as an opening is better than anything he writes on schools.
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2011-02-10
I really need to learn when to stay away from google
The “where is your god now” burger…
